We Recommend - Houghton Festival

Words by: S Roberts

Posted: 9/8/17 12:01

Since the announcement of Houghton Festival earlier this year, all raving roads seem to have been leading to Craig Richard's debut three day festival.

So what's all the fuss about? Houghton plans to the UK's first festival fusing music, art and sculpture. It has already sold out and made several 'Best Boutique Festival' lists before it has even opened its doors. From the 10-13 August, Houghton Hall, a country house near Norfolk in the UK and home to the Houghton Sculpture Garden, will be transformed into an an immersive music and art experience set in the surroundings of a stunning forest setting, complete with obligatory lake for the night lights to shimmer off.

The line-up is a list of Richards' favourite artists and feature lots of Fabric favourites such as Ricardo Villalobos, Nicolas Jaar, Seth Troxler, Raresh and Floating Points as well as some eye catching live acts. Villalobos and Max Loderbauer make their UK live modular show debut as Vilod. Tony Allen performs a special tribute to Art Blakey and the DJs list lines up some of Craig's favourite selectors over the years, ranging from breakthrough artists like Saoirse to esteemed selectors like Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, one of the original residents from seminal 1970s disco party, The Loft.

As well as the weighty line up, the unique creative stages are just as formidable a draw. Caravan Shorts present their highly sought after 15-minute theatre productions from inside a portable caravan where a small intimate audience, consisting of a handful of members at a time will experience a short drama.

East London's audiophile bar Brilliant Corners bring hi-fi quality sound to one of Houghton's hand crafted wooden yurts, where they'll be presenting GIANT STEPS in collaboration with The Analogue Foundation. British reggae institution, Trojan Sound System, will be hosting their own space.

Short Bursts Of Concentrated Joy curated by David Blamey, present a programme of artist's films that celebrates shape, colour and sound in relation to the physical body, featuring artists such as Yoko Ono.

Cinema content will be curated by Ivan Smagghe and feature screenings from Future Shorts, the world's first ever global pop-up film festival and distribution label, who curate independent short films from around the world. Composer Ricardo Romaneiro will create & perform an hour long musical meditative journey on a 12-string acoustic guitar. Weaving live loops and processed guitar soundscapes in real time, Ricardo creates a tapestry of sound evoking sonic palette reminiscent of Pink Floyd & Brian Eno.

Art Tours of Houghton's sculpture park will also take place across the weekend, with impressive work from visionaries including James Turrell will be showcased. LYF Drawing will be running classes throughout the day and into the evening, ranging from more traditional nude sketching (with a twist) to drawing stills from famous films which will later be projected as part of the 'Nude Cinema Project'.

Compliments & Flattery will bring their uplifting installation to the festival. Participants are asked to sit between the artists and are then showered with compliments and flattery.

There are several talks and music sessions worth catching too. Truth & Lies will explore 'Revolution & Change in Venezuela and the Tropics' through films, talks, design and crates of the funkiest music in the world. The 'Revolution & Change' series looks at significant dates, events and places in history and presents a snapshot of the music and art connected to these events before and after the time they occurred.

FInally, a special one off print of an art book created by Craig Richards, who is also a highly respected artist, featuring 96 pieces of art, each depicting the artists playing the festival, will be available to buy only at the festival. For lovers of art and music this promises to be one of the most trail blazing festival weekends of the year.